excerpt of an article Published in Asian Tribune on 2008-11-20

By Prof. Shantha K. Hennayake - Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka .

Sadly, the most notable feature is the destructive behavior of the Sri Lankan University students since the 1970s and especially since the late 1980s when the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) took control of the students’ unions using intimidation, violence and terror against the larger student body to subdue the students into their ideological and political control. JVP and the informal, if not illegal organization called Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) and the Socialist Student Unions turned the Universities into centers of anti-politics and recruiting ground for future JVP carders.

During the last 30 years and especially the last 15 years, the JVP and its affiliated student unions thus begun to turn the above goal - producing the university students who are generally incapable of fulfilling any function in the world that may fall to their lot, citizens of poor intelligence, lacking moral integrity, and devoid of energy, initiative, judgement, tact and qualities of leadership. Exploring the answers to the question that how did the JVP and its affiliated student unions created this unfortunate transformation is the theme of this article. The empirical basis for this article is the Faculty of Arts at the University of Peradeniya but the experience in other Faculties at Peradeniya and in other Universities have many parallels and thus the issues raised here is more systemic covering the entire university sector.

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